This invention pertains to apparatus for the large scale cooling of hot liquids, such as the liquid coolant required for the cooling of thermal electrical generating plants. In situations such as these a large amount of hot liquid must be cooled substantially, before being recycled as a coolant or expelled into another body of water. A number of different devices have previously been used to perform this function, such as large cooling towers, cooling ponds extending over large areas of land, and a variety of aerating devices. Many of these earlier devices are considerably dependent upon ambient wind conditions for efficient operation since the rate of heat transfer into the ambient air can be limited by both the saturation and the heating of the air above the devices by the rising hot water vapor. In such cases the overall efficiency and cooling capability of the devices depend greatly upon an ambient wind above a certain minimum speed to replace the heated moist air with cooler drier air. In addition to the speed parameters, the ambient wind direction can be contrary to the direction for maximum heat transfer efficiency.
The co-pending related Applications as referenced above disclose liquid cooling units each of which inherently develops a directional wind effect across the unit as the heated liquid is being cooled. The units are further disclosed as formed into large scale liquid cooling assemblies in which the individual spray units within the assembly can be controlled independently of one another to take advantage of the ambient wind conditions at any given time. These units and the assemblies of units provide a solution to the above prior art problems of dependence on the ambient wind conditions, in that the units inherently generate the necessary wind effects and can be controlled to take advantage of any ambient wind direction. The present invention constitutes a further development in cooling assemblies using these directional wind units.